We live in a culture that sees freshness and youth as beautiful, and lines on the skin as terrifying - especially for women. This is something I witness all around me, from magazines to the way my own family and friends speak about beauty - what gets praised, what gets bypassed. The more I expand my community to include people who wield badass earth-skills, have their hands elbow deep in the dirt and stained with the raw, fresh organic blood of LIFE, seem to carry the kind of wisdom and heart and life-experience that makes me want to go ask them for advice and follow them around like a puppy dog. They have some lines on their face. They have wrinkles around their eyes, their forehead, their lips... they have weathered faces and bodies... and as time goes on, I find *that* to be more and more beautiful. I also find embodiment and excellent physical health to be beautiful... not for the superficial image (pancake makeup just looks like someone has dirty stuff suffocating their face, to me) but for the actual radiance and vitality that comes from turning attention to the physical temple that is our body and the carrier of our shen - all the spirit that dwells within us. And yes - more sleep for the exhausted - and drinking plenty of (warm!) water - and a meditation practice - yoga before dawn all days - daily roaming in nature - cooking our own food slowly and with love - oil-pulling and flossing and thorough teeth brushing and and and - oh. Seems we're getting into the realm of deep fantasy for those of us parenting young children on our own, thousands of miles from extended family, in graduate school, with weird digestive/fatigue issues, and no trust fund. Or Or Or. Fill in the blank of your own maniacally, unstoppably fuller-than-full life here ____________. In this breakneck,yang, hyper masculine do-ing culture it looks like I'll be rocking that tired mom skin for a good while longer. But I really do think some of those lines are cute. (just *some* of them, mind you - conditioning don't go down easy!)
We live in a culture that sees freshness and youth as beautiful, and lines on the skin as terrifying - especially for women. This is something I witness all around me, from magazines to the way my own family and friends speak about beauty - what gets praised, what gets bypassed. The more I expand my community to include people who wield badass earth-skills, have their hands elbow deep in the dirt and stained with the raw, fresh organic blood of LIFE, seem to carry the kind of wisdom and heart and life-experience that makes me want to go ask them for advice and follow them around like a puppy dog. They have some lines on their face. They have wrinkles around their eyes, their forehead, their lips... they have weathered faces and bodies... and as time goes on, I find *that* to be more and more beautiful. I also find embodiment and excellent physical health to be beautiful... not for the superficial image (pancake makeup just looks like someone has dirty stuff suffocating their face, to me) but for the actual radiance and vitality that comes from turning attention to the physical temple that is our body and the carrier of our shen - all the spirit that dwells within us. And yes - more sleep for the exhausted - and drinking plenty of (warm!) water - and a meditation practice - yoga before dawn all days - daily roaming in nature - cooking our own food slowly and with love - oil-pulling and flossing and thorough teeth brushing and and and - oh. Seems we're getting into the realm of deep fantasy for those of us parenting young children on our own, thousands of miles from extended family, in graduate school, with weird digestive/fatigue issues, and no trust fund. Or Or Or. Fill in the blank of your own maniacally, unstoppably fuller-than-full life here ____________. In this breakneck,yang, hyper masculine do-ing culture it looks like I'll be rocking that tired mom skin for a good while longer. But I really do think some of those lines are cute. (just *some* of them, mind you - conditioning don't go down easy!)
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